


Phantom

by Gh0sTwRyT3r



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen, Minor OC - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-01-07 14:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1121017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gh0sTwRyT3r/pseuds/Gh0sTwRyT3r
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pain, unbearable, almost crippling pain, radiated from his right fingers. Brotherhood-verse. Crossposted from FFN<br/>April 11th 2017: Edited and Expanded</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Original Phantom

**Author's Note:**

> Phantom has been rewritten/extended! It will go up as chapters of this!, I'm leaving the original as the first chapter, but the others are the extended versions of each scene break

Title: Phantom

Fandom: FMA Brotherhood

Rating: T

Characters: Ed, Al, Winry, Roy

Authoress Ramblings: The locations are included for no adequately explored reason other than to provide scene breaks, and because it's habit from my W13 stuff. Also, there is  **RoyxEd**  in here somewhere,  _ **but it can be taken as parental RoyxEd if you dislike yaoi**_. I wrote it vague like that on purpose. On that note, formal address (Fullmetal, Colonel) in the Roy's Office scenes is because they're at work, so no complaints about that. Oh and Ed is 10 in the Resembool scene.

Edit: September 7th 2011, made some minor error fixes

* * *

Resembool

* * *

It started shortly after the surgery, nearly unbearable pain, radiating from his right fingers, up his arm. His automail fingers clenched the sheet tightly, shredding it.

"Ed? Are you okay?" Winry's voice cut through the haze of pain.

"I-I'm fine…"

Winry looked like she didn't believe it.

"Are you in pain?"

Ed nodded. "D-don't tell A-Al, he already f-feels guilty…"

Winry nodded, sadly.

* * *

Roy's Office

* * *

Ed's distinctive footsteps echoed through the office. Those familiar with it could hear the limp in Ed's gait. The door didn't get kicked in, or slammed open. When it opened, Ed leaned on the doorframe. Every eye in the office locked on him.

"Are you alright?" Ed ignored Hawkeye, and slowly made his way to Roy's desk, flopping in a chair once he got there.

"Fullmetal, are you alright?" Roy could see the pain etched on Ed's face, the taunt that he'd been planning had died on his tongue.

"I'm fine." Ed's voice was laced with pain.

"Take the next few days off."

Ed looked up at Roy, who dismissed the others in the office to lunch.

"Can I stay with you?"

"Of course, but I would like to know what's wrong."

"I'm in pain, duh." Ed had seen the flash of sympathy and knew Roy had held back a taunt. He wouldn't say it, but he was glad Roy had, he wasn't in the mood for it.

"Why?"

Ed sighed and rolled his shoulder.

"Don't tell Al…"

* * *

Northern Amestris

* * *

Ed shivered. His automail was slowly freezing, and it was making the phantom pain worse. He was in route to Fort Briggs; he was assigned a mission there. At least this time he had cold weather automail. The truck that had picked him up had crashed, and the soldier who had picked him up hadn't caught on that Ed had automail. The two were making abysmal time. Standard Fort Briggs procedure said that a search party would be organized within ten minutes after someone went missing. Someone could freeze to death in that amount of time. Ed sat on a rock, stretching his automail limbs, attempting, futilely, to shake off the pain. Al would kill him if he found out that Ed had been hiding this from him…

* * *

Fort Briggs Sick Bay

* * *

Ed's eyes blinked open to the sterile lights. The pain had overwhelmed him, and he'd passed out, just outside the fort. His escort had apparently gotten him inside.

"Welcome back, how are you feeling?"

Ed looked for the source of the voice, finding the doctor near his head.

"I'm fine."

"You passed out less than 20 minutes ago, and you have a mild case of frostbite."

Great…Al and Roy were going to kill him.

"The pain is normal…"

"Pain?"

Ed nodded and explained.

"Phantom Limb Syndrome. Does your brother know?"

Ed shook his head. "No, and I have no intention of him ever finding out."

* * *

Central

* * *

Ed went down, hard, on the concrete. His left knee had buckled, and his left arm held his right.

"Brother!"

"I'm fine, Al." Ed grinned through the pain.

"No you're not!"

"It must've been something in my automail, if it happens again, I'll let you know."

"Fine." Al didn't buy his brother's claim. Winry always double checked her work, and even triple checked it, nothing in Ed's leg would break like that, nor would he be able to walk. Al resolved to ask the Colonel if Ed was acting strangely.

* * *

Roy's Office

* * *

"Colonel, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

The office was empty, except for Roy and Al.

"Has Brother been acting strange?"

"Strange how?" Roy had a concerned look on his face.

"He seems to be in a lot of pain lately."

Roy sighed, he'd known this was going to happen. Ed couldn't keep things like this from Al very long.

"Ed didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you to feel guilty."

"About?"

"Ed has Phantom Limb Syndrome. It causes him pain in his missing limbs."

"How long has Brother been hiding this from me?"

Roy shrugged, "He only told me because I made him."

"What else did he tell you?"

Roy sighed again, Ed was going to be pissed. The blond Alchemist had told him that during some attacks it took more than one dose of painkillers just to move, sometimes more than two (1). He never outright complained, and Roy hadn't noticed one particularly bad attack that had Ed taking a few days off work.

Al nodded, and left, intending to talk to Ed about this.

"Al, I didn't tell you anything."

* * *

Ed and Al's Place

* * *

"Brother? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

From Al's vantage point in the doorway, he could only see Ed's normal foot over the top of the couch, and his automail arm over the couch arm.

"Why didn't you tell me about being in pain?"

Ed started and swore in pain.

"Damnnit! Who told you?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Who told you?"

This continued for several minutes, in which Al came around the couch to glare at his brother, the best he could, and Ed rose to his feet, attempting to glare back.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to feel guilty; it's not your fault." Ed ground out, falling back onto the couch.

"Are you okay?"

"No."

"Can I do anything?"

"No."

Al sat on the floor near his brother's head.

"I didn't want to worry you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Multiple Doses of Painkillers: I'm saying he either takes some form of Aspirin and some form of Ibuprofen or he waits the recommended time between doses…or both…
> 
> (1.5) It is not RECOMMENDED that you take Aspirin and Ibuprofen together. Ibuprofen is best administered 8 hours BEFORE or 30-120 minutes AFTER Aspirin.
> 
> (2) Phantom Limb Syndrome: Yes it exists, and is even canonically implied (at least in Brotherhood) that Ed suffers, at least mildly, from it. Ed makes a remark about having pain in his automail. (Don't quote me!) It can be treated with painkillers, and can get as bad as described, but not always.


	2. Resembool

Title: Phantom

Chapter Title: Resembool

Fandom: FMA Brotherhood

Rating: T

Chapter Summary: The Resembool segment, expanded and reworked

Gh0st Rambles: Alright, so I’ve made some changes to this sucker. It's still short though.

I removed the Roy/Ed Tag. Roy and Ed family not Roy and Ed shippy.

* * *

 

Ed woke up screaming in pain, scaring the Rockbells from their slumber, and causing Al to make a sound like someone dumped out a toolbox when he jumped. The small blond boy had woken screaming several times since the arrival of the brothers a week prior, whatever sleep he’d been able to catch cruelly snatched away by the pain radiating from his missing limbs. Winry could only watch as her granny rewrapped the stumps in clean bandage and tried to get pain medicine into her friend, and only listen as Al let out dry, metallic sobs, the closest he could get to crying. She stood in the doorway of Ed’s room, hiding her face in her pajama sleeve and trying not to let Ed hear her cry. She retreated to her room as her sniffles grew louder.

            “I wish I knew how to help…”

If wishes were horses, she’d trade them for Ed and Al to be whole again. She cried herself to sleep as Ed’s pained screams faded into whimpers.

The nights carried on in similar fashion for another month before Ed was waking from nightmares more often than pain.

It had started up again shortly after the surgery, Ed’s inability to sleep through the pain, the nightmares had never truly gone away, Winry knew he just hid them from her and Granny. Al too sometimes.

* * *

The pain had never truly gone away. He no longer suffered the horrific agony of the first weeks, when the pain was so bad he wasn’t aware of anything else and thought he saw Winry crying in the doorway, but his missing limbs never really stopped hurting. The specialist in battlefield medicine they’d brought in, a friend of Granny’s, had said automail might help, with artificial nerves and such to help overwrite the old pain. He hadn’t really been paying attention, more focused on the dog outside than their guest. Automail, especially that good of automail, was expensive and what their mother had left…he wasn’t sure would cover it. He wouldn’t need it anyway, not like he was going to do anything with it.

Until Lt. Col Mustang and 2nd Lt. Hawkeye dropped by.

A year. He could do it.

He’d forgotten how much it hurt. Fire racing up and down his arm, starting in his fingers and burning its way up into his shoulder, searing into his brain. He was pretty sure he was getting a migraine from it. His new fingers twisted in the sheets, tearing them to shreds.

"Ed? Are you okay?" Winry's voice cut through the haze of pain

He grit his teeth and took a deep breath, he didn’t think he’d be fooling her. "I-I'm fine…"

She didn’t look like she believed him.

            “You’re in pain…”

"D-don't tell A-Al, he already f-feels guilty…"

The last thing he wanted right now was to hear his little brother cry. He closed his eyes to Winry nodding sadly.

 

* * *

 


	3. Roy's Office

Title: Phantom

Chapter Title: Roy’s Office

Fandom: FMA Brotherhood

Rating: T

Chapter Summary: The first Roy’s Office segment, expanded and reworked

Gh0st Rambles: Alright, so I’ve made some changes to this sucker.

I removed the pairing tag. Roy and Ed family not Roy and Ed shippy.

This is kinda vague in the timeline, like it’s kinda Roy’s Central office layout, but Ed’s younger than fifteen, but Hughes is there too and suddenly a couch? I haven’t watched Brotherhood in a LOONG time, so eh. Roy did some interior decorating or something.

* * *

 

Ed's distinctive footsteps echoed through the office. Those familiar with it could hear the limp in Ed's gait. The door didn't get kicked in, or slammed open, it was opened so gently, it didn’t even squeak, and it needed oiled, badly. When it finally opened enough, Ed leaned with his forehead on the door frame, he looked like he was about to hurl. Every eye in the office locked on him.

Hawkeye stood up from her chair and was around her desk before Ed even pushed himself off the doorframe. “Are you alright?” She frowned at him when he didn’t answer her as he moved towards the colonel’s office, still looking like he was about to be ill. His shoulders were tense and his gait wasn’t quite as smooth as it normally was. He looked like he was in severe pain. Hopefully Roy would notice and take it easy on the young alchemist.

"Fullmetal, are you alright?" Roy could see the pain etched on Ed's face, the taunt that he'd been planning had died on his tongue. Ed sank into the chair in front of his desk, faint relief crossing his face before being reclaimed by pain. Roy got up and shut the door, Ed wouldn’t want the others to hear anything he might divulge in his current state.

“I’m fine.” Roy didn’t have to be a mind reader to tell Ed was lying. He knelt in front of Ed’s chair to peer into Ed’s eyes, the amber dulled by pain into glassy brown. He felt his forehead, the blond didn’t even put up a fight. He was also far too warm.

“Ed, talk to me.” Gone was the Colonel and in his place was the Concerned Parent. He really needed to stop listening to Hughes. His father-y-ness was clearly rubbing off.

“I’m not sick. It’s just pain.” Ed had seen the flash of sympathy and knew the colonel had held back a taunt. He wouldn't say it, but he was glad he had, he wasn't in the mood for it. He really wasn’t in the mood for one of the older alchemist’s weird parental moods either, but he didn’t have the energy to fight it.

“Just pain? Ed, you look like you’re about to be violently ill.” Speaking of, Roy moved his wastepaper basket into range.

“Look, it’s normal, okay. Just don’t tell Al.”

The colonel frowned but nodded his agreement.

            “Go lay down on the couch. You’re not going back out like this.”

Ed grumbled, but did as he was told, curling up into a tight ball of pain and medication that barely took the edge off. Roy sat at his desk and watched Ed drift into uneasy sleep.

Unfortunately, he was snapped out of it when Roy picked him up and carried him out of the office.

            “Lieutenant, I’m taking Fullmetal home.”

Ed was asleep again before he or Roy heard the camera.


	4. Northern Amestris and Fort Briggs

Title: Phantom

Chapter Title: Northern Amestris and Fort Briggs

Fandom: FMA Brotherhood

Rating: T

Chapter Summary: The Northern Amestris and Fort Briggs segments, combined, expanded and reworked

Gh0st Rambles: This is kinda vague in the timeline, like it’s after Ed’s first visit, but before things start really going to shit and yeeeah…I’m not good at timelines…also, I managed to re-work something in that got cut for the vague shippy shit from the original. I still cut it weird...ugh. I'm still working on the last part.

* * *

Ed shivered. His automail was slowly freezing, and it was making the phantom pain worse. He was in route to Fort Briggs; having been assigned a mission there. At least this time he had cold weather automail, it was only prolonging the inevitable, but at least he could still move. The truck that had picked him up had crashed, and the soldier driving it hadn't caught on to who he was yet. The two were making abysmal time. Standard Fort Briggs procedure said that a search party would be organized within ten minutes after someone went missing. Someone could freeze to death in that amount of time. Ed sat on a rock, stretching his automail limbs, attempting, futilely, to shake off the pain. Al would kill him if he found out that Ed had been hiding this from him…Roy was going to kill him on principle. He was pretty sure he had frostbite around his shoulder port and he couldn’t feel the flesh part of his leg. He was also sure that was a good thing, considering his pants were somehow frozen around his leg port.

He blinked his eyes open to the sterile lights. The pain had overwhelmed him, and he'd passed out, just outside the fort. His escort had apparently gotten him inside.

Welcome back, how are you feeling?"

Ed looked for the source of the voice, finding the doctor near his head. "I feel fine.” He remembered the rock and his frozen pants, and the possible frostbite. He couldn’t feel any of it, mot even the phantom pains from his severed limbs. Morphine?

"You passed out less than 20 minutes ago, and you have frostbite. Your leg was bleeding from where the port cut into your skin. We patched you up and gave you some painkillers. So I’ll ask again, how are you feeling?"

“What did you give me? I don’t even feel my automail hurting.”

“Your automail hurts? Oh, Phantom Limb Syndrome. Does your brother know?”

Ed drifted on the painkiller cloud and ignored the question, slipping into his first pain free sleep since the night before the failed transmutation.

Roy was there when he woke up again, reading from a file, with his feet propped up on the bed.

            “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

            “What are you doing here?” Ed was confused, there was no reason for the Colonel to haul his ass all the way North from Central.

            “Did you ever read anything you signed when you joined?”

            “What does that have to do with anything?” Except for making him even more confused, it must have shown on his face, because the other alchemist lowered the file and put his feet down.

            “I’m going to take that as a no. This is your file.” He pulled a piece of paper from it and handed it to Ed. “In becoming your commanding officer, I also serve as your legal guardian.”

 


End file.
